WHEN Brian Walker took over as head teacher at West Park School almost 13 years ago, he was determined to make sure results improved.

Now, he is celebrating the school's best-ever set of GCSE results, with the promise of even more improvements to come this summer.

He also has the added bonus that the 1,400-pupil school is in the top five per cent of schools nationally for adding value to its pupils' education.

When Mr Walker joined the Spondon school, GCSE result success was measured according to the percentage of pupils gaining five or more A* to C grades in any subject.

At the time, the school was achieving was in the 30% to 40% range and Mr Walker said he was aiming to reach 60%.

But results for last summer's GCSEs show that a massive 92% of pupils gained five or more A* to C grades – much higher than expected.

The more commonly used measure of a school's success – set by the Government – targets 30% of pupils achieving five or more A* to C grades including English and maths.

The results published today show that 56% of West Park pupils achieved this – up from 53% the previous year.

"With the exception of one year, our results have been climbing gradually," said a delighted Mr Walker.

"Not only did we smash my aim to reach 60% but we almost reached that figure including our English and maths results.

"We know we have been adding value to our pupils' learning from when they arrive here just by looking at our results."

Mr Walker said the improvements have been achieved by sheer hard work and by not allowing complacency to creep in.

He said: "We have got the basics right over a long period of time.

"We carry out intensive sessions with pupils in year 11 to make sure they realise the link between GCSE success and life chances and to monitor underachievement.

"Underachievers are never left to their own devices and poor attendees are pursued for completion of work.

"Above all, we have a belief that, given the right conditions, any child can do well."

The Spondon school achieved a value-added rating of 1,037.1.

This was worked out by predicting the future attainment of a pupil based on their previous results at age 11, taking into account the school's previous level of results; characteristics of a pupil such as sex, eligibility for free school meals and age; and measuring all this against their eventual exam results.

Anything above 1,000 shows good value-added education and below is the reverse.

Also gaining a high value-added score of 1025.1 in this year's tables is da Vinci Community College in Breadsall Hilltop, putting it in the top 25% of schools nationally.

Littleover Community School, which tied with Landau Forte College, as 87% of pupils gained five or more A* to C grades, had a value-added score of 1014.1 – also in the top 25% nationally.

Littleover head David Nichols said: "I was very pleased with our results. There were many fine individual successes and the number of A* and A grades increased."

Ecclesbourne School, in Duffield, continued its steady progress and got the best result in the county with 92% of pupils gaining five or more A* to C grades – 88% including English and maths.

At St John Houghton Catholic School in Kirk Hallam, head teacher Bernard Monaghan was "absolutely delighted" with the results as 86% got five or more A* to C grades – 66% with English and maths – up from 58% in 2008.

It was a record year at Heanor Gate Science College where 70% of pupils gained five or more A* to C grades – 61% including English and maths – up from 43% in 2008.

Head teacher Rob Howard said: "This is a result of having personalised learning programmes for individual pupils which gave everyone a real boost."

At Alfreton Grange Arts College, staff and pupils celebrated a "brilliant" performance.

A total of 58% of pupils gained five or more A* to C grades – 46% including English and maths – up from 52% and 46% respectively from 2008.

Wendy Sharp, who has since moved to be head teacher at John Port School, said: "My sincere congratulations went to everyone involved.

"The results were the best leaving present anyone could ask for."